When the Tour de France collides with James Bond it makes for animated magic.
I hope that in the history books it will say that Finding Nemo swam away with the biggest box-office earnings and that this Belgium-produced feature peddled away with the top honor for Best Animated film at the Oscars. Since the introduction of Toy Story what has now become a rarity in the multiplexes are the likes of an animated film style which made giants like Disney so successful, and not only does director Sylvain Chomet choose the traditional animating methods to divulge an imaginative story while telling his story without words—a notion that would be scary to those productions who depend heavily on cast of popular Hollywood actor voices to assure a instant success.
For a film that has very little dialogue, it still speaks in volumes by the sheer mesmerizing quality of the picture where critics are calling this the pencilized version of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Delicatessen. Indeed, the similarities as far as the visual style are apparent from the warm, brownish-yellowish choice of fonts, the choice of represented underworlds where the notion of food becomes particularly interesting, to the sometimes exaggerated facial features of the vast characterizations to the warped sense of humor of it all. Les Triplettes de Belleville gives us the most unlikely of heroes in this 3-foot high grandmother Madame Souza who raises a child to become a threat on the Tour de France cycling championship. Her persistence as witnessed in every whistle-blowing sequences shows her to be the biggest motivator and this quality brings her and the sometimes absent minded dog Bruno to take on the roles of heroic proportions that only a double 0 seven agent could do. With the help of three famous and forgotten vaudeville singers which is a delight to listen to, she wipes out an entire army of Mafioso henchmen that when you come to think of them are a little scary to watch.
There is no translation needed here, the physical comedy and the lack of dialogue which takes on an unexpected narrative route is a wonderful tribute to Jacques Tati’s motions without dialogue hero Monsieur Hulot films (look for a mini tribute to Tati’s Mon Oncle). After the buzz it got from Cannes this year, this inventive number contains a narrative that explodes in imagination and that feeds on the odd, sometimes grotesque shapes and forms paralleled with well-known notions of committed love and the display of the mightiest of people conquering all tallest and biggest of odds. The brilliance of the film comes the charming dynamics found in the characters but also in the use of animation where in one particular sequence Chomet manages to represent what a slow motion freeze frame would look like with the scene where the dog barks crazily at the passing trains.
Les Triplettes de Belleville is certainly a different kind of animation, perhaps a little dark at times and perhaps not the safest choice for toddlers but I haven’t felt this strongly about the merits of an animated film since well last year’s treasured Spirited Away. This is a hilarious picture with visuals that are delicious to the eye and true animation film lovers will glee with enthusiasm for this rekindled kind of animation.
